how did people buy really cheap stuff in the olden days when pounds were worth much more ? Surely 1 pence would be paying too much in certain situations
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There are a couple of other common approaches that haven’t been mentioned.
One is debt – you add the cost of small purchases to a debt and pay the whole thing off at some point. Sometimes traders would offer their own tokens instead of giving change, and these could even circulate as ersatz currencies.
Another is reciprocity – you provide someone with good or services in the expectation that in the future they’ll provide you with something roughly equivalent.
Both of these work in communities where people know and trust one another. They also don’t require currency, which was quite scarce in many places and periods (like Medieval Europe). They are, apparently, more common than barter – the direct exchange of one good or service for another.
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